Bunnies For Sale!

Hi Everyone, Emily here!  :)  Just wanted to let you all know that I have three adorrrrrrable little dwarf bunnies for sale!  Visit my blog here and email me if you are interested!  Thanks! 
 

STRAWBERRY DAZE!

Due to a cold, wet spring, strawberry season is running about 3 weeks late this year, but the good news is that this will not affect the crop.

Here at Housman Farms, we will be having "Strawberry Daze"! 
Our farm will be open daily (12-4pm) through the strawberry season (probably two weeks...starting Friday, June 24th through approximately Friday, July 8th.)

The three "Friday on the Farm" days during "Strawberry Daze", we will be having live music by the Mahlstedt and Housman children. 



Mahlstedt Children (minus baby Elisabeth)

 Please join us for a fun afternoon on the farm! :)  ...and get yourself some good organically grown strawberries! " :)




Our schedule will be as follows:
Open daily June 24th -July 8th 
12-4pm (Closed Sundays)





Fridays- June 24th, July 1st, July 8th
12pm -1pm   Music
1pm - 2pm  Free Tour (this will not be an educational tour, just a look around)

Pricing:
$4.00 per pound

Here is a video of the kids practicing for "Strawberry Daze".

Aloe Vera Plants for Sale

We have a whole bunch of aloe vera plants for sale!  They are $6.00 each.  Aloe is wonderful for sunburn, skin disorders, burns, acne, bug bites, good for healing wounds, helps prevent infection, and lots more! :-) 

 

Strawberry Plants For Sale

Organic Totem strawberries Crowns for sale

June bearing plants.  They are a firm, conic-shaped, bright red fruit that turns very dark when ripe.  Extremely cold hardy, vigorous, and disease-resistant.  If soil pH is above 7.0, soil amendments such as sulfur or mature compost will optimize growth.

We are selling them for $1.00 a crown (plant).   

  

Buster and Blondie



Buster



The twins: Buster & Blondie :-)



Buster again

                                     

Lucy

The buck goat kid and the lambs that were advertised on Craigslist are all sold, but we still have our doe kid, Lucy, for sale.

Lucy is the cutest thing! She is very tame and friendly. The children like to take her for walks around the farm because she will follow them wherever they go. Her mother, Belle, is our sweetest milk goat, with a very easy going personality. Belle is easy to milk (even for an adult with big hands) and her milk tastes great! I would expect much of the same from Lucy.
Call the farm if you would like to schedule a time to see Lucy.

P.S. Don't forget your mud boots! :)

Lambs For Sale

For those inquiring about the lambs on Craigs List, here are some pictures. I just snapped these quick this morning while doing chores, so it doesn't really do them justice. Email me to get more details or to schedule a time to take a look.

Thanksgivin' Turkeys! by Emily

The turkeys are sure growing big and fat for your thanksgiving dinner! All summer they have been eating lots of lush grass and bugs.... one customer told his wife as they drove past the turkey pasture "now THAT'S the way turkeys should be raised!" :)

Mindy writes:

We butchered our first group of turkeys last Friday. It sure was cold out, but we managed just fine. We did have some trouble with our equipment due to the cold, and the process took longer than we would have liked, but all's well that ends well!

Mr. Butter Knife

Jonny's butter knife won first place in the "Twelve and under Wood Crafts" division at the Meeker County Fair!

Hi, my name is Jonny and I make butter knives to make money, so if you want one we're 4.5 miles north of Dassel. They are made out of red ceder. This is how I make them, first I get a cedar limb and then I have my dad cut it into small lats. Then I trace out my butter knives on the lats. Then I get my jigsaw and cut them out. After they are cut out, I get a belt sander and sand them into their shape. Then I sand them by hand until they are smooth. The last thing I do is oil them with coconut oil. After that I sell them to you! :)

Butcherin' Day.....by Emily

Friday, June 11th, was our first butchering day of the season! I woke up around 6:30 to pouring rain, thunder, and lightening...... ahhh..... lovely butchering weather ....... :/ Today was also going to be Aunty Nadine's first experience butchering chickens! :) After some hot coffee and homemade doughnuts, we headed out into the weather.


Dad has built an amazing set up for butchering... including a homemade plucker and dunker. Dad's job was to load up the chickens in crates, then .... umm... well, after that then he hooked them up to the dunker, then Ben and I got them. We had the hard job. :/ We had to pull each little pin feather that the plucker didn't get... no fun....especially in the rain!



After we finished inspecting them for feathers, they got gutted by Mom, Brandon, and Jonny... then sent down to Aunty, who inspected them for any mistakes. Occasionally one got sent back to the gutters if they forgot something. Then she put them into the cooling tank.

By 11:00 all 75 chickens were done, and we also butchered a few old hens that belonged to some friends.
Then we all cleaned up and set up the market. Between two and three o'clock, chicken customers began arriving. They had pre-ordered their chickens. We bagged them up and weighed them for everyone, and they went home with their fresh, organic chicken to enjoy!

Bagels! by, Emily

Last winter a friend if mine told me she had been making bagels. I thought it sounded interesting, so I went on the Internet and found a bunch of recipes. I tried quite a few, not really caring for any of them until I tried the one I use now.

These bagels were AMAZING! First I put yeast and sugar in the bottom of our Bosch. Adding some warm water, I mix it up and dump in the flour and salt. After I get a consistency I like (I usually have to add a little more flour or water,) I kneed it for 5-7 minutes. Towards the end of kneading, if I'm making a kind other than plain, I'll add whatever is needed..... herbs, cinnamon, and raisins, etc. Then I put them in a bowl and let them rise for 2 hours. I must admit I'm not very good when it comes to following recipes..... I take short cuts and skip steps far too much. Sometimes the bagels end up rising for three or four hours.... others for just an hour. :) But, miraculously, they always turn out. In my opinion, it's just too much work to follow the recipe! :) Sometimes I even discover something new in my "mistakes"!

After the bagel dough is done rising, I divide up the dough into ball, making them as perfectly shaped as I can, and then after letting them rise for a couple minutes.... enough so they are puffed up... I put my two thumbs right in the center, and rotate the bagel around them, until the hole is the right size. Next I put them all on cookies sheets, cover them with towels, and put them in the fridge for the night. You can skip this step, and sometimes I do, but it does make it easier, because they get firm, and are much easier to manage, not being floppy. Sometimes I'll just put them in the fridge for an hour or so. They do puff up nice, too, though.

The next morning I get out Mom's HUGE roasting pan, and fill it up with water. I also sprinkle a bit of baking soda in the water, and put it on the stove. (It takes two burners.) When it's boiling I put the bagels in for 2 minutes on one side and 1 1/2 on the other. They puff up real nice.

After letting them drain on a wire wrack for a minute, I put them directly into the 450 degree oven. Here's where I learned another trick last week. I always used to bake them on a cookie sheet.... but it seemed the tops were always too light, and the bottoms too dark, or the bottoms too light, and the tops too dark! Then last time I tried baking them on a stone. WOW! They turned out BEAUTIFUL! They were evenly baked in less time. I'm not exactly sure how long they bake for.... the recipe says 20-25 minutes, but I just put 'em in 'till they look right. :)

Not to brag, but these bagels are GOOD. (Just ask my family!) Everyone loves them..... and I already have some regular customers who buy them every week... cinnamon raisin, plain, and herb are my specialties. They are awesome toasted, made into sandwiches, or just plain with some butter. Come by on Friday and buy a pack..... YUM!

Cute, Adorable, Friendly, WONDERFUL Kittens For Sale! by, Emily

As you all know, my cat had seven kittens. They are seven weeks today, and it's time to start finding them good homes. Five of the seven are still available, as one has been reserved, and I have sold one. Also, a lady is coming tomorrow to look at them and she's either getting Mocha or Cinnamon...so for now they are also not available...but I'll post a comment when she decides which one to get, so you know which ones are available. Also, when I wrote my post about the kittens being born, I said they were all boys. Well, a couple days ago, I just happened to be "re-checking" my kittens, and I realized Butternut is a girl. ...the only one! :) haha! Mocha is the littlest one of them all, and he looks fairly similar to Momma Kitty. I suppose if I had to say what color he is in one word, I'd say dark gray....but he also has quite a bit of tan and black and a little creamy white mixed in there too. ...but he's not spotted with those colors...he's more all gray, with some of those other colored hairs mixed in. SO, SO ADORABLE!!!!!! He is so, so, so cute! He is absolutely not, not, NOT a scaredy-cat at all. He's SUPER friendly, and comes running right up to me! He loves being held .....and is also really good with children. He loves to just sit on my lap, and loves being around people. Mocha tends to be a favorite with everyone who gets to meet him! Well, now we have Cinnamon and Spice, two dark orange kittens. They both have just a little white on their tummy, paws, and maybe a little-little on their faces...but not much. Spice is a little bigger than Cinnamon. He's an awfully playful little bugger....and he's so cute to watch! Of course he is also really friendly, and doesn't mind being held. He looks a lot to me like a miniature lion or something, he is ADORABLE! Cinnamon is much like Mocha. He just loves attention, and loves being held. Him and Mocha are normally the first kittens to get to me when I go out to the barn to milk in the morning. He is really, really cute, I love his beautiful dark orange color. I'm sure him and Spice will grow up to be big, beautiful tom cats. If your looking for a super cute, tame, friendly, and gentle kitten, Cinnamon will work great! Licorice is the kitten that was sold, so of course he's not available any more. :) Butternut is, as I said before, the only girl. She is light orange, which is actually very uncommon, as it is very rare for there to be female orange cats. Butternut is so cute, and she has the most white of any of the kittens. Her face has quite a bit of white on it, (not tons, though) as do her paws and tummy. Butternut has a very nice personality. She is rather mild, very gentle, and very sweet, but despite all that, she is playful. Butternut is a very pretty, dainty little kitten, and if you want a calm kitten, that is good with children, and that doesn't scratch, bite, hiss, or get wild, that would would be Butternut....great personality! Peanut and Butterscotch are also light orange, with little or none white markings. They are extremely playful, and when I pet them, the just purr, and purr, and PURR! They're really cute....really, REALLY cute!!!! They both have great....well....personalities, for lack of a better word! I'm selling them for $10.00 each, to good homes. If you would like to come see them, you are VERY welcome. Just call me (Emily) (320-275-0121), or post a comment. If you would like to get one, or have us reserve one for you, call me or post a comment! ...you won't regret it! :) (Note: all of our kittens are very healthy....the lady who bought Licorice was very surprised how healthy they are. Secondly, they are, or they will be, great mousers. I gave one of my other kittens to my friend once, and she told me that the kitten I gave her was their only kitten that would catch mice!) Meow!

Above we have Mocha, advertising for himself. :) This is Lady nursing Mocha (middle), Peanut, (right) and Butterscotch(left).

This is Lady nursing her kittens when they were just born. Doesn't she look relaxed?!?

This is Lady, the proud mother.

And here is Charlie, the Daddy of the kittens.